Thursday, June 03, 2010

Study: Anti-violence group has no effect: "One of Allegheny County's foremost anti-violence groups has had no impact on homicide rates and, in fact, gun crimes and aggravated assaults increased in neighborhoods where the group focused its efforts, according to a report released Wednesday.The nonprofit RAND Corp. found that the efforts of the group, One Vision One Life, might also shift crime and violence from neighborhoods where the group operates to those where it does not.Researchers focused on the program's impact on the crime-plagued North Side, South Side and Hill District. Starting in 2006, they studied a decade's worth of crime statistics and spent hundreds of hours observing the organization's outreach workers in the field."

I've been at odds with the philosophy of weed and seed. We can't just weed and seed and weed and seed. When do we harvest? When do we flourish? When do we soar to new heights?

However, if they are making heroic efforts in the lives of people -- then what.

The researchers partly blame "the lack of a systematic, coordinated strategy" between police and One Vision, whose work includes behind-the-scenes intervention in brewing street conflicts, programs for at-risk youth and more visible "rapid response" rallies, during which workers take to the streets in the wake of shootings to voice their message of nonviolence.

So, where does blame get pinned? Should it be on the nonprofit that is making a heroic effort or else the police who are missing the systematic and coordinated strategy.